“Leave. Me.Alone!”
She transforms before me, becoming both magnificent and terrifying. Her fingers grow and stretch into thick, piercing claws. Her teeth elongate and harden into two rows of razor-like fangs. Her skin grows dazzling, iridescent green scales that cover her from head to toe, her size doubling and then tripling into the dragon’s mighty form.
She is a haunting beauty, with undeniable power and strength beneath the mesmerizing sparkle of her emerald hide. I can’t look away, entranced in my slack-jawed awe. Her emotions hit me like a tidal wave over our bond, so cold and crestfallen that they knock the air from my lungs. I’ve never felt a distress like this before, so deep-seated that I feel it clawing with unforgiving violence through the hollows of my bones.
The sensation grips me by the throat, a phantom hand squeezing my windpipe so tight that it brings tears to my eyes. It frightens me to my core. It’s grief and madness and agony wrapped up in one desperate outburst. What is this heartbreak, this hopelessness? Did I bring this upon her?
Before I have the chance to blink, to try and apologize, Jyn disappears into the sky.
My thread of fate points upward, where I cannot follow.
15
While the king and queen tend to their domains, the stranger and the young prince set off for the seaside, taking in the salty winds and call of waterbirds. This stretch of beach is just for them, a place to hide away as they share sweet smiles at sunrise and tender kisses beneath the silver moon. The warm thrum through their bond sets their hearts ablaze. It has been only a few days since the stranger’s arrival, but the love they share is pure and true.
“Tell me, my prince,” he says, “how might I use magic to heal my people?”
The young prince hands the stranger a single sapphire scale. He instructs the stranger to place it at the bottom of the nearest mountain spring. “The magic imbued in the scale will cleanse the waters,” he explains, “purifying not only those who drink, but so too the plants and the animals who call the land home.”
The stranger thanks the young prince profusely for his kindness. “Come with me,” he urges, “to the lands beyond the horizon. We may help thousands yet!”
The young prince shakes his head. No, his honorable, doting parents would never allow such a thing.
As determined as ever, the stranger promises to return one daysoon with tales of his adventures. After a parting embrace, he sets off with the dragon scale in hand, determined to save his people. The blue dragon is so full of hope and integrity that he cannot help but feel sure in his decision to share his secrets.
The red thread of fate between them stretches beyond sight, but does not break no matter how far the stranger goes. The blue dragon looks out to the glimmering seas, longingly awaiting his Fated One’s return.
16
Iawake to the sound of… nothing.
Exhausted from my travels, I wound up falling asleep by the fire shortly after Jyn’s departure. The fire has long since gone cold, and there’s not a trace of movement anywhere within the oasis. It appears that the dragon has not returned.
I sit up slowly, rubbing the sleep from my eyes with the heels of my palms. As I blink away my grogginess, I anxiously rub my little finger and stare mindlessly at my gray thread. Pressing questions sit on the tip of my tongue, threatening to crush me down. I force myself to remember the reason why I agreed to set out in the first place.
My mother is no doubt waiting for my return.
She was a force to be reckoned with back in the day. At least, that’s what A-Ba used to tell me. She was one of the prettiest girls in all the North, and as the daughter of a successful silk merchant, her dowry was said to have been so immense that it filled twenty heavy coffers. The line of suitors waiting to ask for her hand in marriage stretched across the Five Kingdoms and back. A-Ma turned away every single one.
Except for my father.
One look was apparently all she needed to know he was herFated One. She described it as a feeling, like coming home. My grandfather was furious that she’d chosen a penniless commoner with no proper education or steady job. If she went through with this match, he said, he would cut her off. Without a coin to her name, she was no doubt dooming herself to a hard life. But A-Ma defied him all the same, content to have found true love.
I think of her now, sitting alone in the teahouse A-Ba built for her with his bare hands, all because she happened to mention her love of Longjing tea, and my heart aches. If I can convince Jyn to part with a few of her scales to be used for A-Ma’s medicine, then at least I have one fewer problem to concern myself with.IfJyn decides to return, that is.
But what of Emperor Róng? He’s a thorn in my side that I can’t dislodge. He has me in a chokehold. If I return without Jyn, will he harm my mother? That, or let her illness take her. But if Idobring Jyn back to Jiaoshan, there’s no question that he will harm or perhaps even kill her. I let out a frustrated sigh. No matter what I do, someone will get hurt. What I need right now is time to think. As long as I remain with Jyn, I’m sure I can come up with a plan.
Caw! Caw! Caw!
The boisterous call of a crow pulls me from my thoughts. I look up to find a curious sight among the large palm trees. The black bird rests on a long branch, but even from this distance, I can tell there’s something peculiar about the creature.
It has three legs, and its eyes glow red.
“Hello, friend,” I say, rising to my feet, watching the little beast curiously. “How did you come to find yourself so far from home?” We are surely nowhere near a crow’s nest here in the desert.
The crow swoops down and lands just before me by the water’s edge, its movements jerky and abnormal. It drinks greedily from the pond, then grooms its black feathers and taps its third foot on the soil.
“What a strange little thing,” I mumble to myself, making a quick study of the creature. “Come for a bit of rest, I see. Well, that’s all right. There’s plenty of space for the two of us.”
